Vampire-O Uplands Park
30 October, 2009 - Results

Despite the darkening skies and the threat of rain, 14 brave souls attended the first annual Vampire-O and by all accounts had a scary fun time finding controls and evading vampires in the dark of Uplands Park. Happy Jaycox was declared the champion by finding all controls with a perfect score of 150 pts. Patrick Donker came in a close second with a respectable 140 pts. Happy started out as a 'randomly chosen first vampire', but after successfully tagging another unsuspecting orienteer, he managed to evade all other 'vampire attacks' to scoot into the finish. His strategy? Run like heck. Hayden did well catching his fist victim, getting a control card and finding most of the controls, but then unfortunately got tagged again as a vampire right near the edge of the finish area.

At times the park was filled with laughter and the occasional scream as a variety of participants were subjected to a 'vampire attack'. In all, it appeared just as much fun to be a vampire and sneak up on orienteers as it was to sneak around and carefully evade them. As hoped, control cards did manage to change hands several times throughout the one hour time limit. A random addition of a blinking skeleton, spiders, the odd bat, some holy water and a 'screaming head' added an additional touch of spookiness to the occasion.

The results below are of course not as important than having a great time engaging in the thrill of orienteering in the dark with a touch of the spirit of Hallowe'en. Results were calculated by giving 10 pts for each control, and a random previously-kept-secret bonus of 100 pts for those who found themselves to be vampires at the very end of the hour, because we know it sucks to be a vampire.

A special thank you to Carl for suggesting this whole new strange concept of night orienteering. We look forward to the return of Vampire O 2010 when the season is upon us again next year.

Whatever your age may be - if you allow your soul to play, you will never grow old. -- Linda

Meet Director: Marie Burgess
Course Planner: Linda Hildebrandt

10 pts for each control